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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Book Review: Babymouse

Read a very cute book recently, Babymouse: Dragonslayer, by Jennifer Holm and her brother Matthew. I had never read Babymouse before, but it was recommended by Jen Robinson (who herself was recommended by Kathy Coffey, my guru in all things about teaching reading). Jen Robinson's blog is a great resource for anyone interested in kid's lit as a parent, teacher or reader.

Babymouse is a math-hater, because she is bad at it. Her teacher, shockingly, starts her on her adventure by sending her to be a mathlete. While there is no math per se in the book, it is all about immersion and expectations by the Mathlete coach, and employment and approximation on Babymouse's part. And all with excellent connections and fantasies of our great fantasies, Narnia, Lord of the Rings and Potter. A homerun all around. My only unrequited wish - more actual math. All that for only $6 at Amazon.

The italicized terms here are from one of the best frameworks for teaching and learning I've ever seen.It's really the lens through which I evaluate and work on my teaching. Brian Cambourne's article "Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: Twenty years of inquiry" is available online here.

My daughter Ysabela's review is here. She says the title misspelling is intentional...

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